1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the area of internet search technologies and resource gathering using web crawling techniques, and in particular to a method and apparatus for streamlining the results of an internet search by excluding the results of a prior search.
2. Description of Related Art
Today, people use search engines to perform a search for a specific topic or topics. Typically, it is not uncommon for the set of search results to contain a very large number of search results. Thus, during a search session, a user may perform several searches, each one a refinement of the previous search. This allows the user to scale down the number of results returned to the user during the search session. Even though the search strings are changing, the information that the user is seeking for does not change.
In a typical search, each time a search string is submitted to a search engine and the search results are returned from the search engine, the user reads the result summaries and reviews a specific result, which may include a web page or site, which is close to the topic they are searching. The problem though, is that too often unwanted or previously reviewed results keep reappearing in each subsequent search result set, even after the search is refined. Thus, the search result set continues to be unwieldy, making it difficult to find a specific web page or site containing information specifically relevant or responsive to the user""s search query.
Bearing in mind the problems and deficiencies of the prior art, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus to reduce redundant search results during an Internet search session.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus to enable a user to select specific search results to be excluded from a set of subsequent search results during an Internet search session.
A further object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus to allow a user to select specific search results to be included in a set of subsequent search results during an Internet search session.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus to automatically exclude redundant search results from a subsequent search result set during an Internet search session.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.
The above and other objects and advantages, which will be apparent to one skilled in the art, are achieved in the present invention which is directed to, in a first aspect, a method for streamlining the results of an Internet search by excluding at least one prior search result from a current set of search results. The method comprises first selecting at least one result from a displayed set of search results. In the preferred embodiment, the result is selected by marking an action box on a screen viewable to the user which is associated with the result. In a first aspect of the preferred embodiment, a mark in the action box indicates that the result will be excluded from a subsequent set of search results in the search session. In a second aspect of the preferred embodiment, a mark in the action box indicates that the selected result is to be included in a subsequent set of search results in the search session.
A second search is conducted using a second search string to generate a second set of search results. In the preferred embodiment, the second search is related to the first search, with the second search string being narrower in scope that the first search string. It is also preferred that the first and second search strings be hypertext transfer protocol search strings.
The second set of search results is then processed, and a new set of search results is generated which displays only those results not selected to be excluded. In the preferred embodiment, the processing step comprises comparing the displayed set of search results with the second set of search results. Any result in the second set not found in the currently displayed set is identified. Those results from the displayed set selected to be included in the second set are also identified, and the new set of displayed search results is formed which comprises only those results which were not previously displayed or which were selected from the prior set to be carried over into the new displayed set. In the preferred embodiment, this process is repeated for a plurality of subsequent search sets within the search session.
In another aspect the present invention is directed to an article of manufacture comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing a search result set to be streamlined by excluding at least one prior search result from a current set of search results. The computer readable program code means in the article of manufacture comprises computer readable program code means for causing a computer to select at least one result from a displayed set of search results, conduct at least one second search and generate a second set of search results. The second set of search results is processed to exclude at least one prior search result and to display a new set of search results which comprises results not selected to be excluded. In the preferred embodiment, the second search is related to the first search, and the second search string is narrower than the first search string.
In the preferred embodiment, the computer readable program code means for causing a computer to select at least one result from the displayed set of results comprises computer readable program code means for causing a computer to define an action box associated with each result on a monitor viewable by the user, and computer readable program code means for causing a computer to form a mark in the selected box. In one aspect of the preferred embodiment, the invention further comprises computer readable program code means for causing a computer to exclude the selected result from the new set of search results. In another aspect of the preferred embodiment, the invention further comprises computer readable program code means for causing a computer to compare the displayed set of results with a second subsequent set of results, to identify at least one result in the second set which is not in the displayed set, and to include, in the new set of search results, only the selected results and results not in the displayed set of results.
In a another aspect, the present invention is directed to a computer program product for use with a search device and comprises a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied in the medium for causing a search result set to be streamlined by excluding at least one prior search result from a current set of search results. The computer program product comprises computer readable program code means for causing a computer to select at least one result from the displayed set of search results, to conduct at least one second search and generate a second set of search results, and to cause a computer to process the second set of search results. In the preferred embodiment, the processed set of search results comprises search results not selected to be excluded from the the second set of search results.
In the preferred embodiment, the computer program product further comprises computer readable program code means for causing a computer to generate a displayed set of search results using a first and second search string, where the second search string is narrower in scope than said first search string.
In the preferred embodiment, the computer readable program code means for causing a computer to select at least one result from a displayed set of search results comprises computer readable program code means for causing a computer to define an action box associated with at least one result on a screen viewable by the user, and to form a mark in a selected box. In the preferred embodiment, the present invention further comprises computer readable program code means for causing a computer to exclude the selected result from a new set of search results. In another aspect, the present invention further comprises computer readable program code means for causing a computer to compare the displayed set and second sets of search results, to identify at least one result in the second set of search results not in the displayed set of search results, and to include in the new set of search results, only the selected results and results not already in the displayed set of search results. In the preferred embodiment, the excluded results are stored in a database.